For this installment of our weekly book reviews from Booklist, the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book and media review publication, we have Andrienne Cruz’s review of “A Splintering” by Dur e Aziz Amna, first published March 1, 2026, in Booklist.
Enjoy.
“A Splintering”
By Dur e Aziz Amna. April 2026. 232p. Dzanc, paper, $17.95 (9781938603778).
This novel deserves a warning label: it’s a raw, unflinching portrait of feminine rage, gender constraints, class resentment, and the corrosive pull of worldly ambition. Tara, raised in a poor rural Pakistani family of five children, burns with desperation to escape poverty and her domineering brother’s control. She’ll do anything. From the outset, Amna (“American Fever,” 2022) warns that readers may struggle to empathize with her bitter, ungrateful protagonist who is in the grip of entitled disdain for her circumstances. Masterfully withholding sympathy, Amna tells the story of two decades of Tara’s unlikable traits and clashes with her mother, siblings, and friends. Her blind quest for riches and status obscures her good fortune: she was able to finish her education, her family is fiercely loyal, and she married a kind-hearted husband who will inadvertently be a crucial stepping-stone for her climb. Set against the backdrop of Pakistan’s turbulent history from the late-1980s and culminating in Benazir Bhutto’s 2007 assassination, the novel subtly underscores the perils ambitious women face. The provocative writing might irk some readers, but the author adroitly avoids cheap rage-baiting by subtly showing the heartbreaking toll of Tara’s avarice through the eyes of her scarred loved ones. A bold, uncomfortable, and brilliantly executed character study.—Andrienne Cruz
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